VA Hospital Staff Left Veteran’s Body in Shower Room for Nine Hours

14502794_1182747098435246_1806941748943907729_nAn internal report blames staffers at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Florida for leaving the body of a deceased veteran to decompose in a shower for nine hours and then trying to cover it up.

The 24-page report concluded that hospice staffers at the Bay Pines VA hospital failed to provide appropriate post-mortem care to the veteran’s body.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

According to Tampa Bay Times:

“Some hospice staff violated hospital and Veterans Affairs policies by “failing to provide appropriate post-mortem care,” including proper transportation of a body to the morgue, according to the report by the hospital’s Administrative Investigation Board.

Bay Pines ordered retraining and a change in procedures as a result of the incident, and “appropriate personnel action was taken,” said hospital spokesman Jason Dangel.

“We view this finding as unacceptable,” Dangel said.

He declined to elaborate on whether workers were fired or disciplined, citing employee confidentiality rules.

Leaving the body unattended for so long subjected it to an “increased risk of decomposition,” according to the hospital report.

Here’s how the report describes the incident:

Once the veteran died, hospice staff members made direct verbal requests to an individual described as the transporter for the body to be moved to the morgue. The transporter told them to follow proper procedures instead by contacting dispatchers. That request was never made, so those responsible for taking away the body never showed up.

At first, the body was moved to a hallway in the hospice, then to a shower room, where it stayed, unattended, for more than nine hours.

Some hospice staff “demonstrated a lack of concern, attention and respect” for the veteran, the report says.

Once the problem was discovered, efforts to understand how it happened were stalled by failures in oversight and by reports that “falsely documented” the incident, the report says. Staff misrepresented why the problem occurred, attributing it to a communications breakdown that never happened, according to the report.”

In addition, investigators found:

• Hospice staff failed to check a 24-hour nursing report that would signal whether the death was properly reported and failed to ask personnel involved about the handoff.

• Questioned later by investigators, some responsible for oversight at the hospice blamed a shortage of clerical staff — a claim they later recanted.

• Staff failed to update a nursing service organizational chart, hampering efforts to determine who was in charge.

• The hospice unit lacks a structured plan for educating personnel on best practices.
The 24-page hospital report, issued in April and heavily redacted, was obtained through a request made under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Investigators interviewed more than 30 witnesses.

Sonya Sasser

South Carolina PolitiChick Sonya Sasser has conducted enormous research and has written numerous PolitiChick articles on topics such as: the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, Obamacare, the erosion of personal freedoms, the unique power of county sheriffs, the Constitution versus U.N. treaties, Benghazi, terrorism, Mexican drug cartels, and various political candidates. Sonya has also conducted exclusive interviews with: well-known gun rights advocate Nikki Goeser, Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote, OK Congressman Jim Bridenstine, N.C. Senate candidate Molotov Mitchell, U.S. Senate candidate Nancy Mace, Madison Rising's lead singer Dave Bray, and many other distinguished subjects. Sonya has been a guest speaker at the South Carolina Guns Across America rally and various Conservative radio shows. In addition to her efforts to save our Republic, Sonya is a Christian, a wife, a mother, a registered dietitian, and a fashion and fitness guru. She is infamous for being 'that chick who runs a lot' and loves sharing her fitness tips with others! Sonya is also the creator and administrator of Breakthrough Nation, a Conservative blog that reaches thousands of Patriots across the nation. If you ask Sonya why she spends so much time on the political battlefield, her response will most certainly be, "I do it for my children." She feels it is her duty to preserve and protect those precious freedoms that have been endowed to every American by their Creator.

Related Articles

Back to top button
Close
Close

Please disable ad blocker.

We work hard to write our articles and provide you with the content you enjoy. The ads on the site allow us to continue our work while feeding our families. If you'd please whitelist our site in your ad blocker or remove your ad blocker altogether, we'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you!